Saturday, July 26, 2008

Iquitos Cathedral Altar Cards Coming Soon!

Deep in the heart of the Peruvian rainforest, unreachable by roads, a populous city of 400,000 bustles with activity. Welcome to Iquitos, a city rich in history, character, and charm. And, a beautiful Cathedral, founded as a Jesuit mission in the 1750's. It is currently the seat of a Roman Catholic Apostolic Vicariate.

The city can be reached only by airplane or boat, with the exception of a road to Nauta, a small town roughly 100 km (62 mi) south. Most travel within the city itself is via bus, motorcycle, or auto rickshaw (mototaxi, motocarro or motokar). Transportation to nearby towns often requires a river trip via llevo-llevo, a small public motorised boat.

So sayeth Wikipedia ...

Right now, a set of altar cards are on the drawing boards that I'm modeling after the colorful Iquitos Cathdedral. Its many stained glass windows of saints are breathtaking. It will take some time to bring it all together but I hope to do this cathedral and the community justice with a good design.

Wish me luck. Take care.

Jerry

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

Google & Yahoo Image Search For Altar Cards

Hello everyone. I was browsing around the web today mostly looking at pictures for inspiration. I noticed that I got completely different results depending on whether I put quotes around "altar cards" or not. Google and Yahoo both have great image search engines that complement one another. I spotted some absolutely gorgeous antique altar cards that appeared to be hand painted. It would be great to know the history of those cards and to know about the artists and the typesetters who created such beautiful works. There doesn't seem to be any information out on the web about the origins of antique Tridentine altar cards. If any of you know any stories of them and who designed them, where, and when, I would appreciate hearing from you.

As I've worked on designing mine, I feel somewhat like an orphan wondering about his ancestry. Anyway, just thought I'd throw this out there. If you know any history of altar cards, drop me a line, please.

That's it for now. I hope you all have a pleasant evening.

Note: Since the writing of this post, I have actually stumbled upon a bonafide Latin Altar Card artist! It seems that Lady Nina Somerset of London, England created a set for her church back in the 1930's. They are absolutely gorgeous. I can't believe that I found out about her.

Vesting and Prayers At The Foot Of The Altar Cards For The Latin Mass

Good morning everyone. Just a quick note to let you know that you can now view online very large images of our Tridentine Mass Vesting Prayers and Prayers At The Foot Of The Altar. I've uploaded them to our Photobucket, Picasa, and Zooomr galleries. Soon, I hope to have large versions up on Flickr too.

That's about it for now. Enjoy your day.

Note 10/08/2008 : Our four-page catalog of altar cards and supplemental cards can be viewed here.

Monday, July 21, 2008

Phenomenal Blog Pinging List


All I can say is - WOW.

I just ran across a great, recent article about blog pinging services written by Wulffy (pictured) in his blog about Search Engine Optimization (SEO.). Click the title of this post to read the article yourself if you are interested in improving your blog pinging success. The article lists lots of services to include. And, more importantly, which ones don't work any more or are so bad they aren't worth using.

I won't go on and on about this stuff because I'm a newbie to much of these things. Go read Wulffy's article. You'll be glad you did.

Graphic Designers, Web Designers, Google Analytics, Photobucket, Picasa, Flickr ...Whew!

Hello again everyone. Well, I thought I was a graphic designer who made some great altar cards for the Latin Mass. Little did I know that I had to spend so much time and energy learning about blogs, web design, and how the world is flat now and all connected. Getting this blog and my related photo sharing sites connected with each other and connected with everyone else properly has been the goal. Let me share with you some of the exciting things that I have discovered and how it benefits all of us.

Time Magazine says that the top three players in the internet world are Google, Facebook, and Apple. As for Apple, I never have liked them so I won't even go there. However, I have taken great strides in making my stuff tied in well with the first two. Photobucket is closely tied to Facebook. So, by putting my pictures there, it ties me into one of the big three web players. Google owns Blogger and Picasa Photos so I'm tied in there. Yahoo, although not one of the big three, has to be in the top 10 anyway. Well, Flickr Photos is owned by Yahoo so I'm tied in there. In theory, all of my blog stuff and photo stuff should now be connected fairly well with the outside internet world. For my little business here, it should help it. And, that helps priests around the world get quality materials for their Tridentine Mass needs because they can get some of them from us or I can point to other sources that they may be interested in instead of our work. Lastly, as I develop my friendships with priests and organizations sympathetic to the Latin Mass, their links will appear on my pages as a few do already.

I must say that this is a lot of work but it's worth it. This is exciting to be so engaged in such ventures that take me virtually around the world as it does you. Thanks for putting up with this long winded post. I hope your week is starting off really good like mine is.

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Photobucket Photo Sharing Use With Blogger

Photobucket Album

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Google PicLens for Firefox viewing of photos and pictures


Hello everyone. I hope your weekend is going well so far. I've been reading up on how best to present pictures and photos for web viewing so that we can all see our pictures better. I use the Firefox browser. It's so much better than Internet Explorer and is very popular. Google has a great Add-on for Firefox users to view photos and pictures on the web. It's called PicLens. For optimum viewing of photos and pictures on the web, I think it's the best thing going.

PicLens allows the viewer to see 3-D and full screen versions of pictures for a awesome renditions. Flickr and Picasa are already PicLens "enabled." While playing with PicLens, I have found that it works better with Picasa than Flickr. However, text displayed is still fuzzier than it should be. Perhaps, that is a side effect of PicLens 3-D rendering.

Should you install the PicLens Firefox Add-on, check out our large examples of altar cards to see how awesome PicLens is. So far, I've only uploaded one example in a large version: Red & Gold border. But, more will be uploaded soon.

That's about it for now. Now, where's my girl? It's time for us to go for our bike ride ...

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Large Examples Of Our Latin Altar Cards

Hello everyone. I hope your week is going well. It's nearly the weekend and I can't wait for my girl and I to get out and ride our bicycles through the countryside. We have fantastic bike trails in this area. What are your plans for the weekend? I hope they include some rest and relaxation.
Well, around here, I've been working on some large images of our cards for web display. So far, I've only completed one version, Red Border, and it's link is on our homepage. Hopefully, it will give you a better idea of what our work looks like.

Before I sign off for the day, I want to take a minute to tell you some good news I heard this morning. It seems that UNICEF has developed a food that is so nutritious that they are having great success with rescue efforts of the malnourished children in Niger. It's strange name is Plumpy Nut! A link to the You Tube video about it is on our home page. Isn't that just great news?

Well, that's it for now. I hope you all have a pleasant evening.

Jerry

Note: Since the writing of this post, we have uploaded five large print altar card designs for your review. Please click here to see them.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Find a Latin Mass near you

Hello again, everyone. Just a quick note to point out that we now feature a link for you to locate a Latin Mass near you! Isn't it exciting to see it making such a comeback?

Enjoy your day.

Sancta Missa Latin Mass Workshop

Hello everyone. Just a quick post here. There's another workshop coming up later this summer being hosted by Sancta Missa. For anyone interested, please check our link to Sancta Missa.

Enjoy your day.

Monday, July 14, 2008

A warm welcome to Wheaton Church Supply!

Hello everyone. I hope your week has started off well for you. It was beautiful here today as my girl and I ran errands and buzzed around. Like you, we are always busy. But we always enjoy our time together even if it is only going to the grocery store.

While we were out, I got a call from Wheaton Church Supply (known online as Church Supply Warehouse) who wants to begin listing our altar cards on their website. We feel so honored to now be partnered with Wheaton and Adoremus Books. Wheaton carries a complete line of church supplies and priests' needs so please consider them in addition to Adoremus. I sent them files so that they can put our work on their site so look for them to appear soon.

Myriad is such a tiny business. We're just a couple of laid back graphic designers who love our work and only want to meet the needs of priests and seminarians and break even. We don't know much about business yet but will do everything we can to provide good customer service.

It's late and I really should be off to bed. I hope you all have a pleasant evening. May God bless us all. Thanks for stopping by.

Jerry

Saturday, July 12, 2008

A warm welcome to Adoremus Books!

Hello everyone. Welcome back. Just a quick update on what we've been up to lately. We're excited about the many positive changes happening since the Pope's announcement last year regarding the celebration of the Latin Mass. To see some of the latest headlines, check out the link at the bottom of this page. As for us, our Latin Mass materials and other offerings can now be viewed online at three popular photo sharing websites: Flickr, Picasa, and Zooomr. Those on Flickr feature our complete line as well as those on the drawing boards.

Also, we are proud to announce that our friends at Adoremus Books now stock our altar cards. Adoremus is one of the finest sources of all things Catholic on the internet. They also carry many additonal items for the Latin Mass that you may be interested in.

Our mission is to offer priests the finest altar cards available at modest prices. As we build our business, we would appreciate hearing any ideas and suggestions that you may have. If ours are not what you are looking for, we will help you find what you need even if it is from a competitor. If you still can't find it, contact us. Maybe we can design especially for your needs.

Thanks for visiting! May God bless you and yours.

Regards,

Jerry